Folksy Friday - You lucky, lucky b!@*tard

Thank flip its Friday as its been a long week. Dave (my long suffering bf) had an interview yesterday for a job he's wanted for a long time. Its a lectureship based here in Newcastle, so it means we won't have to face the upheaval of moving to a strange new city. Actually I've always enjoyed moving around and I've lived in a few places in England. However its coming to that point now where I like the idea of settling somewhere and the thought of leaving friends behind yet again, is frightening.

To be honest I started writing this post yesterday when Dave was at his interview, expecting to find out the result today. However he found out around 4.30 yesterday and guess what - he got the job YIPPEE!!
With that in mind i came up with the theme 'luck' as tribute to the good wishes I was sending Dave's way. I believe we make our own luck in this world - although sometimes its nice to have a helping hand.

1. I've always admired the iconic and colourful images of Hindu deities. One of the many things that Ganesha is god of is success. I found this wonderful solar lantern made in the Glow Box shop. Check out their other ace lamps.


2. Another striking symbol representing luck and fortune is the Maneki Neko - or lucky cat, which can be seen in many Chinese establishments. Loving this card at the Hello.Konnichiwa shop:


3. I wish the best for you. Next is this beautiful silver, dandelion pendant.



4. Astrid Weigal has produced these striking fabric panels below. her shop is full of lovely things designed and made by her own fair hands.



5. Take a look at Janine Basil's pop art inspired shop chock full of funky head gear. I'm not a fascinator fan but this Aces headband she has created is fab:


6. The luck of the Irish be with you! The penultimate item featured this week are these St Patrick's day, shelf blocks. They'd be a great house warming gift don't you think?


And one more for luck. I've gone of track a little as this one is an Etsy find, but i couldn't resist having it in -

7. This beautiful Seven lucky Gods print of an original painting is one of the many gorgeous prints you'll see in Matthew Mayer's etsy shop:


By the way in case you didn't get it the title of this post is a quote from the dungeon seen in the hilarious Monty Python film 'Life of Brian', for all you MP virgins :)
Oh yeah and if you are feeling lucky today why not enter my giveaway.

Illustration Giveaway

Hello friends, the usual Folksy Friday post today is being deferred in favour of something more exciting - a giveaway!!
To celebrate reaching 500 Facebook fans I'm giving away an A4 picture mounted print.
One of you lucky folks can choose an illustration print from any of those listed below which can be seen on my Folksy or Etsy shop or on the illustration page on my website:

Resting Place (purple or yellow version), Robot Love, The Classics, Whale and Me, Love Bird, The Journey, Tree House Retreat (autumn or summer version), Craft Is Sweet, Jelly Loves Ice Cream, Home Sweet Home or my latest illustration Bunny Balloon Ride.

Anyone can enter and to be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is either of the following by Thursday 11th August:

1. Briefly comment on your Facebook page wall about this giveaway and include a link to this blog post. Then leave a comment at the end of this post with a link to your Facebook page.

or

2. Tweet about this giveaway via your twitter account and include a link to this blog post. Then leave a comment on this post with a link to your Twitter page.

Then i will enter your name into the prize draw. That's it.

I'll announce the winner on Friday 12th August and i'll ask the lucky monkey to let me know which print they would like and to email me their postal address, so i can post the goods :)

Newbies

Hope you all had a good weekend. I had a great time despite the torrential down-pours, as it was Dave's graduation so it involved lots of bubbly which is always a bonus.

Just a quick update to let you know whats new in my world. Firstly my illustration for Novel magazine has been published. This is the full thing revealed as in a previous post I only unveiled a snippet:

Unfortunately due to limited space in the magazine it was published online rather than in print.

You can find it here and read the article that it accompanies:

http://www.novelmagazine.co.uk/index.php/2011/07/why-do-whales-pee-through-a-hole-in-their-head/











The other thing i wanted to update you on is my exhibition along with 16 other North East based illustrators. The exhibition officially opens on the 2nd August and goes on till 25th Aug. There will also be a pop-up shop throughout the event, selling the exhibiting artist's work . To find out more visit the Facebook page

Here is the lovely poster designed by Laura Cartwright:



















I am now selling my work in Winkin Bitsy's Tiny Emporium a lovely little shop in Ferryhill, County Durham, run by a fellow artists Helen Temperley. Visit the Winkin Bitsy Facebook page to get all their latest news.
You can now also buy my framed prints online via the lovely Number 18 Maison Boutique shop website.

Folksy Friday - If you go down to the woods today...

If you haven't already guessed by the post's title this week the Folksy Friday theme is the woods, although I suppose from the title it could also have been teddy bears or picnics for that matter. Yet it is indeed all things forest related, so today you will find loads of lovely handmade goodies nestling in the branches and Folksy foliage.
The reason for choosing this theme was down to discovering by a wonderful forest themed treasury on Etsy. Plus I love trees which is pretty evident in a lot of my work such as 'tree house retreat', so i thought why not.
To make the items as varied as possible I've selected items from as many different categories as possible.

1. I spied this super funky wooden fox pendant necklace available from the Finest Imaginery shop. A piece of jewellery thats sure to get your friends asking where you got that from.



2. I love the colours in this vegan soap. Its at times like this when I wish someone had invented smell-o-vision. Unfortunately there is only 1 item in the shop at the moment but hopefully there will be more soon.



3. I couldn't possible have a forest theme without featuring the work of one of my favourite artists and Folksy/Etsy sellers, seeing as so much of her work depicts woodland. This print by Hidden Eloise is one of my favourites in the Hide and Seek shop:
















4. There are loads of great items in the Superfumi shop and this woodland fawn brooch of theirs is soo cute I just couldn't resist having the little thing in my feature. Adorable!



5. Found these little chaps in the ZM felt store. I can see these making a great decoration in a living room. I love the warm earthy colours and the way they've used the real caps from acorns.



6. Take a goosey gander at this gorgeous forest green skirt with its huge feature side pocket and golden zip. I love that the design is so innovative and incredibly stylish. You'd be sure to turn heads with this: could wear it during the day or e think its so stylish and the design is so design.



7. Another item swiftly added to my favoutites is this lovely little red riding hood cushion available at the Whistling Cowgirl shop. Hm think I'm gonna need some more paper for my Christmas list. Shame its so far away as i imagine this lovely will be snapped up way before then.



8. Tea lovers take note - your tea pot needs this! I don't think anyone would fail to be captivated by this amazingly intricate forest green tea cosy by Andrea Lesley. Absolutely beautiful:



9. One last one for the list is this eye catching green striped knitted bag . Okay its connection with the forest is fairly vague, but it is green and its so stunning i had to have it in :)



Thats all folks, have a great weekend. Over and out!
And by the way if you would like to contribute to my 'Lucy Needs That Green Skirt Fund' feel free ;-)

The pains of product photography

Today I worked on taking some new product shots.
Photography is really not my strong point and i find taking pictures of my work for Folksy and Etsy incredibly challenging. They're either slightly blurry, dull looking, too dark or flat. Photoshop always helps to enhance the images, but if they're not much cop to begin with then its not worth a thing. Light is always an issue too. Its a lot easier when the sun is out, but reflection on the frame's glass is often an issue. Then of course if the sun hasn't got it's hat on & i have to use a flash, the light bounces off the glass & obscures the print. Grrr can't win!

Anyway its something that i am trying to improve at, as i'm sure it will make a world of difference to my online shops. I was pretty please with what i came up with today i think they're a big improvement on my previous ones, so i thought i would share some of them with you.

I Heart Amsterdam

Afternoon folks. I got back this morning from a short trip, or 'mini-cruise' as it is titled, to Amsterdam. Approx £60 will get you a ferry overnight from North Shields, followed by a Saturday morning and afternoon in the Dutch city, then another evening and night on the ferry back to England.
A great way to spend £60 of your hard earned cash! Of course it does end up costing more when you add on food and sight seeing (depending on what you want to do), but well worth it. The ferry is fun too and pretty entertaining if you don't mind settling in with a load of cheery, drunk Geordies dancing to 'Aga Do'. Not exactly my scene, but they sure know how to have a good time.

I was led to believe that Amsterdam is all smoking dens and an expansive red light district, but that certainly wasn't the case. Sure theres that too, which is part of it's eclectic and diverse charm, but there is loads more.

Its a huge place, with bustling cris-crossing streets offering a visual feast for the eyes. Set off by rows of quaint town houses along the banks of the canals. Almost all are surrounded by pot plants, flower boxes and have a traditional push bike complete with wicker basket, propped up against their front porch.
It is like something straight off a 'Town and Country' photography shoot, absolutely adorable.


Having never been to Amsterdam before I wanted to take in as much as possible, so although initially we planned to go on the canal trip, we opted to save the 15 euros and explore on foot.
At this point rather than continuing to waffle on, ha ha so appropriate, i will give you the Amsterdam trip in a short photographic story with brief descriptions.


No description needed for this one except just to say "mmm...cheese".
Actually, now i come of think of it a lot of these photos involve food.














The queue for the Anne Frank House was ginormous and this photo doesn't do it justice, as it was round the block.
Needless to say we didn't go. Maybe next time.











Me in a room in the Op Art Museum, a gallery dedicated to optical illusion art, such as Morris Escher.
Not exactly the height of cultural sight seeing, but it was fun.











We spied this, whilst sitting outside an extremely popular pancake house, anticipating the arrival of our long awaited poffertjes. From what we could gather, this is a bar on wheels.
The drinkers pedal whilst a sober (i hope) driver steers them round city and hilarity ensues. Brilliant!! Why no one is doing this in Newcastle yet is a mystery to me. You'd make a mint from all the stag and hen dos. I would go on it even if i wasn't on a hen do.


These are the poffertjes (mentioned in previous post)....















this is my face (gimme, gimme, gimme):
















Couldn't resist photographing this cute bench outside a very quaint bakery. I was going to post the photo of the delicious looking baked goods in the window, but i'll leave that one to your imagination.
Besides i'll get a reputation for being food obsessed at this rate.



Below are pictures of the most awesome and surprising part of the trip. We stumbled upon a parade through the streets of 100 vivid Chinese dragons. A pretty spectacular sight, accompanied by booming traditional Chinese drumming. I think I heard someone in the crowd say it was a celebration of 100 years of Chinese settlement in The Netherlands, but i can't be sure. What an unexpected bonus though.












































After a long day of walking around we were both knackered. Here is a photo of Dave illustrating that feeling very well, in our last port of call - the pub:















The weather in the afternoon, had massively improved since our morning arrival in the city, so back on board we headed to the top deck to catch some rays and wave goodbye.






As the boat pulled out of the port we were amazed to see the coast packed with kite boarders, land sailors and wind surfers taking advantage of the breezy weather. I guess kite boarding is a popular sport in Amsterdam. Who'd 'ave thunk it!





Well there it is. I hope to go back for a longer trip sometime in the future as i only saw a fraction of what the place has to offer. That leaves nothing more to say really, other than if you've not been to Amsterdam before, then what are you waiting for?

Folksy Friday - Blowing in the wind

Happy Friday friends. I'm excited today as this evening my lovely boy and I will be going on a weekend trip to Amsterdam. I'm getting the ferry from South Shields dock around 5pm and travelling overnight to Amsterdam for an early 9am arrival.
We'll only have about 6 hours there in total, but we plan to take a canal boat ride, have a nice lunch and a brief stroll round the shops. I'm hoping we can find a pancake house or café that offers Poffertjes. They're these little puffy pancake balls, hot and fresh out of the pan then covered in butter and icing sugar - they're delicious. I also imagine that they're incredibly fattening.
We were hoping to visit the Anne Frank Museum but unfortunately it was booked up when we tried to get tickets 3 weeks ago. It certainly is popular.

To get in the mood for some Dutch delights this week's theme is windmills. Okay I know its a bit trite, but hey.

1. If you're in the mood for baking this weekend, these windmill cupcake toppers could be right up your street. A fab novelty addition for a birthday party and i reckon they'd make a nice cocktail decoration too!


















2. Feast your eyes on this stunning paper cut by Suzy Taylor of Folk Art Paper Cuts.
There is so much going on in the image I could get lost in it. That lady sure is pretty handy with a cutting tool, a veritable paper cutting wizard.



3. I'm really liking this felt windmill brooch from Lucky Little Layla Jewellery. It's a lovely simple idea and really effective. I also adore the choice of colours.



4. Hepsibah Designs on Folksy create beautiful textile art from pieces of fabric, wool, thread and trimmings. Their shop is full of gorgeous decorative bits and this enchanting framed embroidery artwork titled 'The Old Windmill' is also available:



5. Look at this super cute 'Kokeshi Girl Bookmark' from the Papercake Print and Make shop. What I particularly love about this item and the shop is that the design is emailed to you and you can print and cut as many as your heart desires. What a great concept!



6. I found these very cool retro sew on patch badges. They really remind me of my days in the brownies and girl guides, when we used to get them as a reward for achievements. Ha ha I remember the first one acquired in brownies was for making a cup of tea. To be fair I was about 7 years old. Hmm I wonder if they still have those.



Hope you enjoy this week's choices. Amsterdam here i come!!

Bye y'all

From Tip to Top

As drawing is out at least for a little bit, while I give my right wrist some down time to recover from the tendonitis, i’ve been getting on with some other overdue tasks.

For far too long now my work room, or box as it should more aptly be known, has resembled a dusty, thread filled, bomb site.

Given that it is from this little sanctuary where my illustrations and handmade creations are sparked into life, I felt I should really give it the attention it deserves and tidy the thing up.

Therefore after many well meaning promises to myself, to get on it, i’ve now done the deed. To my surprise there is actually space to move around now - albeit two steps in either direction, its a damn sight better than tripping over boxes and trailing floor thread all over the house.

I had the irrepressible urge to document this mammoth task in a cliched before and after stylee, so here it is:

BEFORE check out the desk and how I’ve cunningly shifted the mess into piles around the table edges allowing a small clearing in the middle from where I can draw. NICE!

AFTER Ta da!! Now lets see how long this tidy room lasts.